Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1887-12-01
BOOKS FROM ABROAD.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AMERICAN
AND FOREIGN DECORATIVE ART.
English, French and American Books
Side by Side-Where the French Excel.
English COnservatism-German PubIi-
cations-English Works in Cloth.

| III.
The foreign author is not without some nro.
tectlon against what are called the piracies of
American publishers. Art and cheap labor
have combined to give him a foothold in the
American market, and though it is only O
slender foothold, it is enough to make him
wish the ground broader and ffrmer. The
total of the import trade in books, maps. en-
| cravings, etchings, and other printed matter
IN the United States is considerable In the
year 1886 it amounted to over IS, ,250.000, and
this sum represents about the average value
Of such importations for the past few years.
But it is the finished art and antiquity of
some foreign works that give the chief dig
nifty to the import trade and these are the
features also which bring a large proportion
of the profits We call ourselves a great
manufacturing nation; and from the utili-
tartan point Of view the claim is well founded.
We are beginning to supply ourselves with
nearly all the coarse products of industrial
art of better quality than can be obtained
in other countries; but except in few special
| ties we are only entering upon the boun-
daries of artistic decoration in the mechanical
arts, and are not skillful in presenting our
works III the most attractive form. Ameri-
can designs have been criticised for their an
gularity. This is not necessarily a serious re-
Election on their excellence.
No better illustration of the difference be-
tween American and foreign decorative art
| can be found than may be witnessed in a
book store where English, French and Amer
| lean books can be examined side by side.
| Lineal design is here out of the question.
| One book is just as rectangular as another:
but there is a wonderful difference to be OBJ
served sometimes in the motive Here is a
| French edition of paul and Virginia" found
at the leading importing house in New York.
| At glance you see that the spirit which
| guided the hands of the bookmakers of the
medieval ages, the monks, still survives in
! France, and ventures to assert its superiority
| over the modern machine. Everything about
| the book is suggestive of the most highly per-
fected art. The morocco upon the cover is
deicately tinted, the ornamentation is ex-
actly proportional and chaste, and, within,
the eve traces a gallery of fine art, which be-
| gins with the first leaf and extends to the
| last One of the first pages of each volume
| is illuminated with a water color painting
| from the hands of an excellent artist, and
following through the volume, founded OH
situations i'll the story, are pictures printed
alternately upon silk and upon Japan paper
1t is all fine art, and the letter press of the
volume is worthy of its company This all
costs money, of course, and such books are
only within the reach of men whose opulence
is at least equal to their taste. The volumes
cost $500 each.
Here, too, are couple of volumes contain
ing the works of the poet Rogers. issued in
1880 by an English house. 1t is not, like the
! paul and Virginia" a publication that de-
rived its chief merit from its association with
imaginative ait, but it is simply specimen
of the first complete edition of the poets
works issued under his own eye, and repre-
sentative cf the best decorative art of the
period. Within its limitations it is also
work of art, wrought out carefully by hand
in every detail, and bearing in each touch
the impress of conscientious labor and good
taste. The most approved style of book
binding in England at present, it is said, calls
for gilt edged leaves at the top of the volume,
while at the side and bottom they are left
plain This has been thought a recently
adopted fashion; but this edition of Rogers
works proves that it is only revival. These
volumes are ornamented in this manner, al
though printed more than fifty years ago;
and it would not be an encrOachment on the
probabilities to presume that Rogers himself,
whose artistic sense was known to be more
delicate and truer than that of any of his poet
contemporaries, might have been the author
Of the fashion. But the entire work in bind
ing, ornamentation. and letter press suggests
that there has been little or no progress since
its publication in the art of bookmaking, and
the man who cares as well for his tea service
as his tea, and can afford the luxury, will do
well to have his Rogers in this form. 1t will
cost him only S125 to obtain the two volumes.
The Germans, as their art is illustrated in
the United States, are better writers than
manufacturers of books They seem to care
little for the setting of their literary gems,
and rarely use calf or morocco i'll the bind
ings. Their publications, as seen upon the
shelves of our importing houses, are all bound
in cloth or paper. They are distinctively
German, however, in their decorative feat
ures, displaying somber tints alternately
with bright and varied colors, and are pro-
duced with more elaboration than the cloth
bound works of any other nation. German
importations run largely also to portfolios OF
engravings, something not strictly belonging
to the book trade, but classed with books in
tariff schedules, and made to pay correspond
ing duties On account of the large German
population in the United States, one would
expect to find the importation of German
works very large. 1t is, indeed, large, fol-
lowing next to the English importations in
the total, and coming not so very far in the
rear But even here the American publisher
is the bete noir of all the importers. Not
even in Germany will he allow popular
new work to escape capture, but, presto, on
its appearance, it is reproduced by his Ger
man printers in the original, and offered to
German readers in this country at prices
lower than they must pay for even cloth
bound copy of the same work produced IN
the land of fabulous cheap labor
Americans will always be struck by the
peculiarities of English books bound in cloth.
The leaves are rarely if ever cut, and the
backs are attached to the volume only at the
corners in such manner as to create the I'M
pression that the book is about to fall in
neces. The case is not quite so bad, however,
for the workmanship is pretty firm, and it is
ouite possible that its fragile appearance is
source of protection, the reader being likely
IN handle with greater care an object that
seems SO perishable. This system OF binding
has also some less questionable advantages
The leaves and covers are more flexible than
T., American books and not always flying
sbut the rnomant they are liberated from the
band A new English book taken from the
.ha1f Of the bookstand can be opened at any
go ond made to lie fat, cover downward,
mon the counter without injury TO the WORK.
Were Won to attempt the feat with an Ameri-
can book you would break the back. inls
van is not the explanation